A Brief Biography of Sigmund Freud

The field of psychology is very young and is the descendant of philosophy. Though Sigmund Freud was not the individual who separated the two, his contributions to psychology still reverberate in the field today. This paper will address biographical information, review his theories and published work, and show how “his contributions to psychoanalytical theory account for his world renown” (Galbis-Reig, 2003).

Born in the Moravian town of Freiberg, on May 6 1856, Sigmund Freud was the son of a wool merchant. His mother was twenty-one when she gave birth to him. She was Jacob Freud's second wife and half his age. His first wife bore him two sons, Emmanuel and Phillip, who lived nearby with their mother. Sigmund Freud's best friend John was his nephew. John was the son of Emmanuel, Freud’s eldest half-brother, and was a year older than Freud (Gay, 1988).

Calling a younger person uncle must have been difficult for John, but the two were best friends. Throughout their childhood, they were typical boys, playing and fighting with each other in the small town they called home. Freud’s father was the intermediary when the two boys fought, and was always scolding Freud when he had done something wrong. According to Gay, during one particular episode Freud recalled, Freud's father demanded to know why he had hit John, to which Freud replied “I beated him, ‘cause he beated me” (1988).

In time, Freud found that he was becoming more and more sexually attracted to his mother. The possibility for his sexual attraction may have had to do with his mother’s enormous love and admiration for him. He was her first born, and she doted on him as any young mother dotes on her child. Freud spent his first few years totally in her company and care, and his f...

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... followed Freud penned his collected works, all twelve volumes, despite the oral cancer discovered in 1923, which he had removed. He also assisted the International Psychoanalytical Society in their financial distress by writing the “New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis” (Gould & Howson, 2009). Freud’s advancing age as Hitler grew to power made his journey to London in 1938 a fatal one. He died the next year as war broke out across the world.

Sigmund Freud's mark on the world is far-reaching and immense. Psychology and Psychoanalysis are still in their infancy, and more about the mind becomes known each year. All great men who give to humanity inevitably find some of their work disproven, ridiculed, and even proven to be the greatest contributions to humankind. Freud is indeed the father of modern psychology, just as Einstein is the father of modern physics.